Winemaker Notes
Each blend has been half Merlot and half Cabernet but no two wines have had the same vineyard combinations. This year the blend is 50% Merlo, all coming from our “Upper Bowl” vineyard, and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 15 from our “Big K” vineyard. The resulting wine is a seamless blend with an emphasis on high-toned sweet delicious rich fruit with an almost hidden depth and structure. Enjoy now or decades from now.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Mernet Reserve, an equal part blend of Estate Merlot, Carneros Merlot, Estate Cabernet Franc and Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, offers up scents of cedarwood, underbrush, forest floor, black currants, sweet kirsch and cola. The complex, evolved aromatics are followed by a medium-bodied wine with beautiful fruit purity, an attractive texture, and a long finish. Consume this superb, complex 2010 over the next 10-15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Few wines, even in Napa, are this rich. It dazzles with explosive cherries, blackberries and anise, with caramelized oak notes. Tannins are thick and serious. Your window of drinkability for this blend of Merlot and Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc begins about 2022.
While the beauty and history of the land are appealing, it is the richness of the soils that makes the hillside perfect for an estate winery. These soils are, in great measure, responsible for the dramatic intensity of the fruit associated with the ultra-premium wines produced at Robert Keenan Winery.
Keenan completed a solar power system on their property that went on-line in 2007. The system supplies all of the estate’s energy needs, including the winery, administrative offices, visitor hospitality area, and the homes located on the property. The Napa Valley Vintners have recognized Keenan as a “green” winery, which they proudly announce on the back labels: Solar Powered and Sustainably Farmed.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.